Sparsely attended far-right rallies in Britain highlight the decline of a movement in disarray, but experts say that some of its ideas have found new expression in the Eurosceptic UKIP ahead of elections in May.

Anti-fascist demonstrators outnumbered the roughly 400 people at a raucous English Defence League (EDL) rally in the northern city of Manchester in March, where speakers equated Islam with Nazism, terrorism and sexual slavery.

“Islam is not a religion of peace. It never was and it never will be,” said a speaker at the gathering, while another brandished a Koran to jeers of “Burn it!”.

Far-right groups such as the EDL and the British National Party (BNP) have imploded in recent years and even the German anti-Islamist movement Pegida’s first rally in Britain earlier this year was a flop.

Several of the relatively small groups have fallen victim to infighting, including former BNP leader Nick Griffin, who was expelled by his party last year after defeat in European Parliament elections in which he lost his own seat.

“One obvious explanation is the electoral system,” said Tim Bale, chair in politics at Queen Mary, University of London.

“Clearly it’s not favourable to small or extreme parties so any far-right parties have to overcome that obstacle,” he said.

Britain has no proportional representation, and its first-past-the-post system ensures that larger parties with national organisations have an advantage.

The BNP, Britain’s most electorally successful far-right group, had by the end of 2014 lost both its European Parliament seats and seen the number of its local councillors reduced to just two, from a 2009 peak of more than 50.

UKIP rises

The decline of Britain’s far-right has coincided with a rise for the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) and some commentators see a clear link between the two trends.

“It’s not quite as simple as saying it’s a more respectable BNP,” said Steven Fielding, director of the Centre for British Politics at the University of Nottingham.

“But it has certainly picked up the votes that would otherwise have gone to the BNP or another fascist group, plus others, the extreme Eurosceptics,” he said.

The party, which is poised to come third in the election in percentage of the vote, has denied any far-right links but it is regularly embroiled in controversies over the views of prominent members.

It won its first two parliamentary seats last year with pledges to pull Britain from the European Union and dramatically reduce immigration.

Tim Bale, chair in politics at Queen Mary, University of London, said: “There’s the extreme right, and what we would call the populist radical right, which is slightly less nasty”.

“You could say that UKIP is populist radical right,” he said.

The anti-fascist watchdog Hope not Hate was more categorical about UKIP picking up support from the far right, saying it had “steamrollered through their previous heartlands and stolen their voters”.

Fertile soil for Islamophobia

UKIP says it is not racist and has banned former members of far-right groups from joining, although at least two prominent members who joined before the ban was introduced have been allowed to remain.

The party has punished members for conduct ranging from comparing Islam to cancer to calling for a popular black comedian to move to a “black country”.

A UKIP parliamentary candidate resigned last week citing “open racism” within the party, and accused it of engaging in “sectarian, racist filth”.

But at his campaign launch on Monday, Farage said: “The thing about UKIP is we have become the most eclectic, diverse political party.”

“We’ve got all shades of opinion, we’ve got people from the left, people from the right, people of all ages, all classes, all races,” he said.

“I would imagine a lot of the far-right think they can go fishing in these waters under the guise that this is a semi-respectable topic everyone’s concerned about,” said Nick Lowles from Hope not Hate.

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Without doubt some of the people who previously voted BNP and for other extreme right wing groups will have switched to UKIP. However if you look at the electoral results over the last five years UKIP must be picking up considerably more support from other sources. For evidence look to the EP elections, in 2009 the three main parties received 9.4m votes, BNP 943K and UKIP 2.5m. By 2014 the results were 8.7m, 180K and 4.3m respectively. So even if you assume every single voter from the three main parties and the BNP switched to UKIP (an unlikely scenario) we… Read more »

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quietoaktree

03/04/2015 00:37

Dislike of ´non-white´ foreigners is not new to the UK –however it has now been expanded to include ´white´EU citizens. The mere ´A wish to leave the EU and return to a simple trading arrangement ´is in itself not racist or extremist, however the different ´layers of packing´ continually added by both UKIP (and Conservatives) is disturbing and suspect. The UK never had a ´simple trading arrangement´with even the EEC when it joined. Perhaps with EFTA (UK was a founding member) — but that was also considered not to be worthy (by the UK) of continued UK membership. With UKIP… Read more »

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GeorgeMc

03/04/2015 01:30

Quote With UKIP what can be said is many of its voters either have a ´Superiority complex´,´Inferiority complex´or just a feeling of hopelessness–depending often on the ´complaint of the day´–and its (correctly or wrongly) direction. Unquote When you disagree with someone but are unable to articulate why, just throw everything including the kitchen sink at it in the hope that you might get lucky. Tell me, am I a nationalist or all the other nasty words that you may have thought of because I would prefer, that as a country, we took decisions for ourselves and did not surrender our… Read more »

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quietoaktree

03/04/2015 10:10

GeorgeMc “Tell me, am I a nationalist or all the other nasty words that you may have thought of because I would prefer, that as a country, we took decisions for ourselves and did not surrender our sovereignty. When the population of the UK is about 12% of the EU how do we stop ourselves being outvoted and dissolved within the greater EU, or is that the plan?” To put it simply — You can´t and Yes. Various treaties, opt-outs and agreements have set the course for ´ever closer union´. Ignorance is no argument and I am sure the UK… Read more »

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GeorgeMc

04/04/2015 00:17

“When you disagree with someone but are unable to articulate why, just throw everything including the kitchen sink at it in the hope that you might get lucky.” No change there then. Instead, you put up three links in support of your nonsense. Two of them have no date and no source quoted (maybe you put them up yourself). You then quote a Euractiv story copied from the UK press of a House of Lords pro-EU committee, which has absolutely no authority or weight. For your education, I will give you the following link which quotes the text of a… Read more »

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GeorgeMc

04/04/2015 02:18

You still do not explain what your links are about, who the author is or when it was written. Basics really

What has £10 poms or any of the other links that you have supplied got to do with this story?

Please tell me you are not a reincarnation of Mathias, Uk-Skeptic and a couple of other names used by the same poster. The style of writing is very familiar.

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quietoaktree

04/04/2015 11:41

George Mc and Barry. Before deciding on which path to take within Europe, it it is wise to both see where you have been and where you (UK citizens) presently are.The links provided are an attempt to show you both. It is far too easy for extreme (and non-extreme) political parties to correctly assume UK voter dementia and ignorance of how Britain is really ´ruled´ and voters cynically manipulated –as is presently again the case — with a (large ?) group swallowing ´hook, line and sinker´ Blow some tender words of ´undeserved´ nationalism in my ear –and I´ll follow you… Read more »

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Barry

07/04/2015 11:54

Well clearly you don’t now and never have lived in the UK quietoaktree because the UK has not been a feudal society for hundreds of years. Politicians by definition cynically manipulate lie vary the truth on subjects to try to fool the populace into believing they are doing anything other than working for their own ends throughout the world, and this cynical attitude is noticeable in the eussr more than anywhere else these days. I am a Britsh citizen not a eu one and would die before I made any oath to support the corruption ridden democratically deficient committee in… Read more »

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Barry

07/04/2015 11:54

Well clearly you don’t now and never have lived in the UK quietoaktree because the UK has not been a feudal society for hundreds of years. Politicians by definition cynically manipulate lie vary the truth on subjects to try to fool the populace into believing they are doing anything other than working for their own ends throughout the world, and this cynical attitude is noticeable in the eussr more than anywhere else these days. I am a Britsh citizen not a eu one and would die before I made any oath to support the corruption ridden democratically deficient committee in… Read more »

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Barry

07/04/2015 11:54

Well clearly you don’t now and never have lived in the UK quietoaktree because the UK has not been a feudal society for hundreds of years. Politicians by definition cynically manipulate lie vary the truth on subjects to try to fool the populace into believing they are doing anything other than working for their own ends throughout the world, and this cynical attitude is noticeable in the eussr more than anywhere else these days. I am a Britsh citizen not a eu one and would die before I made any oath to support the corruption ridden democratically deficient committee in… Read more »

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Barry

07/04/2015 11:54

Well clearly you don’t now and never have lived in the UK quietoaktree because the UK has not been a feudal society for hundreds of years. Politicians by definition cynically manipulate lie vary the truth on subjects to try to fool the populace into believing they are doing anything other than working for their own ends throughout the world, and this cynical attitude is noticeable in the eussr more than anywhere else these days. I am a Britsh citizen not a eu one and would die before I made any oath to support the corruption ridden democratically deficient committee in… Read more »

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Barry

07/04/2015 11:54

Well clearly you don’t now and never have lived in the UK quietoaktree because the UK has not been a feudal society for hundreds of years. Politicians by definition cynically manipulate lie vary the truth on subjects to try to fool the populace into believing they are doing anything other than working for their own ends throughout the world, and this cynical attitude is noticeable in the eussr more than anywhere else these days. I am a Britsh citizen not a eu one and would die before I made any oath to support the corruption ridden democratically deficient committee in… Read more »

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Barry

07/04/2015 11:54

Well clearly you don’t now and never have lived in the UK quietoaktree because the UK has not been a feudal society for hundreds of years. Politicians by definition cynically manipulate lie vary the truth on subjects to try to fool the populace into believing they are doing anything other than working for their own ends throughout the world, and this cynical attitude is noticeable in the eussr more than anywhere else these days. I am a Britsh citizen not a eu one and would die before I made any oath to support the corruption ridden democratically deficient committee in… Read more »

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Barry

07/04/2015 11:57

No you are not a nationalist you are a world dominatorist, nationalists are not traitors to their own country.

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Barry

07/04/2015 12:46

Without doubt they have not because UKIP is the only party that has a regulation that prevents these people joining, they can join any other party in the UK though, this is just eruptive presenting lies because it will cease to exist if we can put an end to one of the most corrupt and democratically deficient governments in the world.

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Barry

03/04/2015 21:18

As ever a pile of nonsense there is only one party that has it in its rules and regulations not to accept former members of far tight parties such as BNP or EDL and that is ye s you guessed it UKIP. Eruptive should not use the same lies and propaganda that emanates from the unelected democratically deficient corrupt bodies in brussels.

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quietoaktree

04/04/2015 01:12

The link I also have– but thanks anyway. That you suggest my dishonesty posting links that shatter your claim of British ignorance of what they voted for –is somewhat confusing. You claim that the British public knew ´full well´of ´ever closer union´ and use the Harvard link as proof ? As previously stated — only pleading ignorance or insanity can be your argument for another referendum. Considering you have NEVER voted for ANY UK Kings, Queens or Lords etc., etc. –on which your ´freedoms´are based – I see little logic in choosing the EEC or EU as ´flavour of the… Read more »

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quietoaktree

04/04/2015 01:53

GeorgeMc

Feudal Britain.

Empire Settlement Act 1922
Empowered the Secretary of State to formulate and co-operate in migration and settlement schemes to encourage Britons to settle in Her Majesty’s Overseas Dominions.